-5-
Serpentine mounts on top of the panther mech and makes his usual maniacal laugh, "I'm going to enjoy annihilating you!" Serpentine arrogantly challenges.
Milla, Kai and Norah immediately prepares themselves for the fight, "Bring it on!" Norah taunts with her fist engulfed in flames.
"I have to admit that's an impressive robot you got there, too bad it's about to be scrap metal." Kai says in his usual monotonous voice as he loads his sniper rifle.
"I've beaten your machine once, we can do it again!" Milla declares with her katana drawn, imbued in jade psychic energy.
"Shyahahaha, you'll soon find out that I've learned from my mistakes." Serpentine retorts, focusing more on the hound than the husky and panda.
Immediately without hesitation Serpentine fires the mech's energy bullets, aiming directly at the group; the youths quickly dodges the barrage of bullets, the robopanther then charges directly towards the hound.
Kai aims his rifle directly at Serpentine who in response stops charging at Milla and turns his attention towards the other canine firing his duel pistols at the assaulting husky, interrupting and injuring Kai.
Norah takes advantage of the hound's and husky's distractions and attacks the side of the mech with a powerful kick pushing the machine sideways, however the panther mech's robotic claws prevents it from falling sideways as it skids across the stone floor. Milla follows with several strikes with her katana leaving several gashes throughout the metallic panther's limbs, however Serpentine remains calm.
"Why are you so calm?!" Milla cries.
"Because of this!" Serpentine responds as the deep gashes Milla left across the machine's limbs began to regenerate, this catches the opposing group by surprise with the viper responding with a large smirk on his face which felt very out of character for the distraught hound.
"What kind of metal is that?!" Kai exasperatedly asks.
"This metal alloy is very special, you can say that dog is familiar with the material that was used to make it." Serpentine responds.
"A material Milla would recognize…", Kai quickly realizes what the viper meant, How did he get that material?
I thought only Milla can utilize it…
Kai snaps out of his thoughts the moment he sees the robopanther falling straight on top of him, he quickly dodges but the shock waves drags him across the stone floor. Serpentine activates the mechs rocket launcher and aims directly at the temporarily immobile husky, Milla swiftly runs in front of the husky in his defense and destroys the individual rockets with several psychic blasts.
The panther mech dashes past the smoke left from the exploding rockets, instead of attempting to run over the canines the mech jumps over them with the propulsors under the panthers mechanical paws. As it lands behind the two canines, Serpentine immediately fires another barrage of rockets, the raging explosions pushes both canines back.
Norah surprise attacks the panther mech with drop kicking against it's back catching the viper by surprise, the force of the attack cracks the stone floor at the mech's paws as well as severely damaging the machine. The panther mech's regeneration is noticeably slower this time, the panda girl attempts to attack the panther again with several fireballs however the mech evades it's way past the fireballs as it heals; Serpentine uses the panther's tail to whips Norah out of the way, crashing her against one of pillars at the corner of the stone platform, knocking her unconscious.
Serpentine redirects his focus back at Milla and Kai firing several energy bullets in the air with his duel pistols. The purple bullets rains on top of both canines, who attempts to avoid the raging bullets, however some of the bullets hits them. The viper fires another barrage of bullets towards the two youths, one of those bullets hits the hound at the side of her stomach. The bullet severely burns the hound leaving her immobile, Milla makes a short whimper.
Norah regains consciousness and quickly runs over to the injured hound, "You're alright?" the panda girl asks.
"I'm… fine." Milla says clenching her teeth as she tries to stand up and resist the pain.
"Hey wanna see a neat trick?" Norah asks as she helps Milla up.
"Not the best time." Milla responds.
"Well I'm gonna do it anyways, trust me you'll thank me later. Also don't panic because I know the moment you'll see what I'm about to do you'll freak out."
"Um, Norah…" Milla notices a blue flame manifesting from the panda's hand, "What are you doing?!"
Norah immediately puts her fiery hand on the hound's wound, Milla winces but she doesn't feel any pain. The hound felt relief as the panda girl removes her hand from the side of the hound's stomach, the wound has fully healed!
"Told you!" Norah notes was a grin on her face.
"Um…" Milla remains dumbfounded, she wanted to ask Norah how she healed the wound, however she focuses her attention back on Serpentine.
"A little help here!" Kai demands as he fires his rifle at the mechanical panther, barely dodging the combined attacks of the robopanther and Serpentine himself.
Milla aims at the panther mech and fires a super shield burst at the robopanther, Serpentine notices the attack and activate an energy shield to protect the mech, this shocks the hound.
"Nice try!" Serpentine retorts, "Like I said I've learn from my mistakes, though I should end this, now!"
The robopanther transforms into a snake-like machine which stood up against a rapid spinning blade, this form was familiar to Milla, but instead of firing several rockets like what the hound expected, instead it fires several large lasers from it's arms as it skids it's way across the arena.
The youths avoid the barrage of lasers zooming across them and missing only by a few centimeters, as the lasers make contact with the floor, the stone platform becomes covered with ice.
Milla, Kai and Norah slips and slides on top of the ice as the panther mech fluidly moves through the ice firing several energy bullets at the youths. The ice made it harder for the group to maneuver themselves as Serpentine continuously flank and counter them.
The panda girl begins to lose her temper as her entire body becomes engulfed in fire melting the ice and mercilessly fires several fireballs at the machine, however to no avail as the mech's energy shield protects it.
The robopanther returns to it's original form and charges at Norah soon after her fury atrophies, Milla pushes the panda girl out of the way dragging both girls against the floor. Serpentine's mech shoots several rockets at the youths, Milla makes a large energy shield surrounding the party.
"You think you can hide from me?!" Serpentine yells as he continues to fire a barrage of rockets in an attempt to break through the hound's shield.
"We need to work together!" Milla cries, trying to maintain the large energy shield.
"He's tougher than we thought, we underestimated him and I'm sure he quickly studied mine's and Norah's combat methods during the previous rounds. I'll give him credit, I can see why he was Brevon's highest ranking general." Kai admits.
"He must have some kind of weakness!" Norah agues.
"What about his anger?" Milla suggests.
"He does seem to have serious anger issues but how does that help us, he seems fairly calm and confident mounted on that mech."
"I don't know, I'm just trying to keep us alive."
"Oh, what about his shield?" Norah snaps her finger.
"What about it?"
"Well if you can't hold on to your shield for long, maybe his shield have the same limitations"
"What kind of logic is that?!"
"A-actually, she may be on to something." Kai interrupts just as Milla's shield gives out, a rocket reaches the group, the explosion knocks all three youths back, the blast leaves a ringing sound in the group's ears.
"The metal alloy he used to make that panther mech is made from the same material from Milla's anklets, gloves and katana." Kai explains, slowly getting up from the fierce explosion.
"W-wait what?!" Milla gasps.
"Quick question, does that material only control you abilities?"
"I wouldn't know, I never remember a time that I didn't have my anklets and bracelets, other than when I got my gloves which have the same effect as my bracelets."
"Well maybe some of his mech's abilities have the same limitations as yours, like what Norah said."
"If it does, then I guess he can't maintain his shield very long also he'd have to stand still to maintain such a large shield."
"The mech's regeneration also seem to have a delay." Norah adds.
Milla hears the sound of energy bullets coming from the looming smoke which covered the ravaged fighting area like a thick grey dust cloud, the bullets make their way towards the youths. The group avoids the bullets as the smoke starts to clear, Milla and Kai were able to hear the bullets coming while they warn Norah of the incoming attacks.
The smoke finally clears and the panther mech immediately charges at the group, however Milla and co evades and the panther mech tackles one of the pillars causing it to crack.
The party furiously attacks the robopanther with combination of bullets, fireballs, and psychic blasts, however the mech's energy shield absorbs the attacks.
"What do you hope to achieve from pointlessly attacking." Serpentine boasts, "Come on! Give me all you got!"
Kai and Norah continues to constantly attack Serpentine as Milla sneaks behind the mech and creates a cube of energy with both her hands, she takes aim and performs another super shield burst. The viper suddenly notices the hound's assault however it was too late, the hound successfully lands the attack and the robopanther is pushed against the same pillar it cracked earlier.
Serpentine begins to lose his patience as he begins to fire rockets randomly across the arena in an attempt to finish the party off. The constant shock waves causes the ground to rumble which inadvertently causes the pillar to fall on top of the panther mech, this catches Serpentine off guard as he activate the energy shield to protect him.
The group survives the swarm of rockets and simultaneously attacks the mech with a combination of several range attacks ranging from physical bullets to energy and fiery blasts, the force finally breaks the shield.
Serpentine quickly attempts to make a new shield but sees the devastating message on the screen:
SHIELD ENERGY DEPLETED
"W-what?! NO!" Serpentine yells in an extremely angry voice with his eye twitching from disbelief, "It doesn't matter! I can still kill you without the energy shield!", the viper barks with another round of projectiles coming his way, the collision causes a large explosion.
Thirty seconds have passed and the smoke began to clear and a damaged robopanther emerges with an enraged Serpentine still mounted on top of the mech. The scorched and scratched metal begins to regenerate like before, Kai and Norah quickly responds by aiming at the regenerating mech.
"Aim at the head!" Milla informs.
"Shut up!" Serpentine demands aiming his dual pistols at the hound while his mech fire a combination of bullets and rockets. Norah counter the attacks with several fireballs, Kai takes aim directly at the head of the panther, he fires.
The piece of metal at the face of the mech falls off revealing a sort of green energy source, "Who's in trouble now?" Norah mocks.
Desperate, the viper fires an extremely powerful energy laser off of the green energy source, "DIE!" Serpentine yells with a commanding voice.
Milla swiftly appears in front of her allies and blocks the laser with an energy shield of her own, "Please… tell me… you have… plan." Milla struggles to speak as she tries to defend against the massive laser.
Serpentine draws his dual pistols and fires them, keeping Norah and Kai behind Milla, "We can't get out of here." Norah cries.
"We're trapped." Kai specifies.
"Shyahahahahaha That's right, struggle girl! I want to see you suffer when I end you, when your new friends and all these people watch their so-called heroine die, I will be the one remembered to have fell a hero. Once you're dead I'll kill these new friends of yours, and then I'll eliminate that annoying cat and foolish dragon girl! Perhaps I should spare you though, and make you watch your friends perish, either way I'll have my revenge! Hehehe" Serpentine informs.
Those words echoes into Milla's thoughts, No… I won't die… I won't let him hurt my friends… I won't let him hurt Norah, Kai, Carol… or Lilac… I WON'T LET HIM!
Without even thinking, Milla absorbs the energy from the laser, the hound struggles to maintain the large amount of energy flowing throughout her body. The hound aims directly at the robopanther, Serpentine is left at shock from witnessing what Milla have done; Milla fires a massive psychic blast directly at Serpentine, unleashing an incredible amount of energy and power.
The robopanther is annihilated, nothing remains but a field of scrap metal and a flabbergasted viper who escaped in time before the mech was destroyed.
Milla breaths heavily from the large amount of energy that was flowing throughout her body, grabbing on to her chest and barely able to stand up; the hound remains terrified of what she just accomplished, I went too far, but I didn't have a choice… I don't ever want to use that power again…
Norah and Kai came to Milla's aid as Serpentine stood across from them, "This isn't over." the viper says with a raspy voice before retreating.
"Milla you're okay?" Norah asks.
"I'm… fine." Milla responds, still exhausted from the previous attack.
"How did you do that?!"
"I don't want to talk about it, just… help me up, please."
As Milla finally gets up she sees the crowd of people morbidly silent which made the youths worried, Well, this doesn't seem good… Kai thought to himself.
It wasn't after a couple of seconds that the crowd and the empress cheers gleefully. Kongzhi remains silent and motionless after Serpentine's defeat, How… how did years of hard work, just collapse… because of a child… I have no choice, it's time to initiate the "last resort".
Yasmine stands up, everyone including the shocked rodent next to her became silent, "I would like to apologize for my guards behavior yesterday and the inconvenience I caused you today. I now know, Milla Basset, that you truly are the heroine that helped save our world, also thank you Kai and Norah. I will leave Kongzhi, my advisor, in charge of investigating Serpentine's sudden appearance and how he entered the city; with that said, I would be honored if you three would visit the palace as my guests!" she proclaims.
The crowd cheers and encourages the youths to accept the empress' generous offer. Milla, Kai and Norah nods, "We will be honored ourselves to be your humble guests." Norah announces for the group, the crowd cheers in response and Yasmine gestures with a smile.
Kongzhi makes a small bow and follows the empress back to the royal palace; although he seemed shocked at first his face quickly changes into a dark grin; the rodent's sudden expression leaves Vix, who was among the spectators, suspicious.
As the crowd began to leave the arena Vix began to look for Norah, meanwhile the panda girl and the others was exiting the arena with their clothes and faces covered in dirt, dust, soot and ash; Milla and Kai notices Jing and Wei waiting for them, Norah follows behind them.
"Congratulations, not only did you pass the gauntlet but you also impressed the empress." Wei says.
"Thank you… though… " Milla interrupts herself, she didn't want to make the others worry.
"Though… " Jing responds, waiting for the distraught hound to continue.
"Nothing."
"Well I hope you realize what an honor it is to be guests at the royal palace. Though I guess that's nothing special for someone like you Milla, am I right?"
The hound makes a small giggle in response.
Vix sees the youths with two adults, a panda and a hare; the rabbit interferes "Excuse me, but may I speak with Norah in private."
"Vix!" Milla says with a smile on her face, the rabbit gestures with a mellow smile.
"Nice to meet you again, Milla Basset."
"Pardon, but who are you?" Wei demands.
"Forgive me, my name is Vix Cole, I'm a friend and I've been traveling with this panda girl for three years."
"Well, greetings Vix Cole."
Vix and Norah goes somewhere private, "Um… I'm sorry Vix, I should've listened to you." Norah admits, gesturing in apologizing fashion.
"All well that ends well. Though I should warn you to be cautious when entering the palace." Vix informs.
Norah expression becomes serious, "What do you mean?"
"I mean something is wrong, and I think Kai would agree."
"Kai? I honestly don't think both of you would agree on anything."
"I will admit that we don't seem to agree on certain topics, however we both know when something isn't right."
"What, you mean like political corruption?"
Vix gestures with a nod.
"I'll bring it up with them, so what will you be doing while I'm in the palace, you know I could bring you as a guest."
"I think it's best I don't go into the palace with you, trust me on this."
"You know I would trust you with anything."
Norah leaves Vix with his endeavours and returns to Milla and Kai.
"So what was that about?" Kai asks
"I'll tell you when we're at the palace." Norah responds.
"Fine, so should we be going?"
"Yeah, but we should grab our stuff from our hotel rooms… and maybe take a shower before we go to the royal palace." Milla suggests.
The youths agrees and prepares before heading over to the royal palace.